Wearable Devices Help Parents ‘Guard’ Children

Mobile phones have done a lot for helping parents keep track of where their children are, but what about younger children for whom mobile devices aren’t a practical option?

Inspired by personal experience, a Taiwanese entrepreneur has come up with an answer to this problem: Wearable devices that can help parents locate their kids if they wander off, and aid in the location of children before they go missing permanently.

Guardian is the brainchild of Johnny Fang, created through a startup called
BeLuvv. The devices -- which children wear on their body or clothing -- use Bluetooth technology to transmit their location to a smartphone in case a parent or guardian loses track of him or her.

A child wears a BeLuvv Guardian device on his arm. The device allows parents or guardians to keep track of a child’s location via a smartphone application that communicates with the device via Bluetooth. The devices are currently available for preorder from the Taiwanese startup. (Source: BeLuvv)

Fang was inspired to invent Guardian when his own child went missing from a department store and it took him 30 minutes to locate him in a nearby bookstore, Viv Lu, a BeLuvv spokeswoman, told Design News in an email.

Within that half an hour, which felt like a lifetime, Fang was absolutely helpless. He kept blaming himself for not paying better attention. Fang believes that with the aid of technology, the tragedy of missing children can be turned into a thing of the past.

The keys to the devices -- which come in a buckle design that can be worn on clothing or a bracelet that can go around a child’s ankle or wrist -- are Bluetooth 4.0 technology and an iOS-compatible smartphone application, Lu said. Guardian also uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and a replaceable button-cell lithium battery, CR2032, that’s rated at 3.0V for power and can last from four months to a year before being replaced. BLE -- used in sensors and low-power devices -- reduces the power the devices need to operate while maintaining Bluetooth’s typical communication range.

Parents or guardians use a smartphone application to set up a variety of parameters for the devices, including a safety perimeter with a range of zero to 230 feet, Lu said. The Guardian device will send an alert to their smartphones if a child wanders too close to this perimeter so they can retrieve them. There is also a family co-guarding feature that allows family members and friends of the child to also install the application, letting parents know if their child is with one of his or her trusted guardians.

In the event a child wearing a Guardian device does go missing, the device -- via the Bluetooth-based cloud network -- sends the child’s location to his or her parents. BeLuvv also envisions the development of a larger Guardian network with the installation of the app on as many devices as possible to help create a larger network of people involved in finding missing children. If a missing child passes by a person using the app, it can send an alert to parents or others looking for the child with location information, Lu said.

Guardian devices are currently available by preorder through the BeLuvv website for $24.95 and will be sold at retail (starting Nov. 30) for $29.95. BeLuvv also is working on an Android-compatible version of the devices.

Nancy-You are a really good mother!!! BeLuvv team knows your worry about those kids who always loss wearable safety devices, and in this case, guardian can be worn from head to toe in various forms such as necklace, bracelet, badge or others you want. Besides, based on kids view, guardian featured by bright color, hardly any weight, and natural material to avoid any irritation from wearing. Also, BeLuvv team creates two protection layers: preventing from missing+co-guarding searching to build the strongest safety fence for kids. We aims to satisfy all parents and childrens' need of safety.

For the terrible and helpless missing experience of Charles Murray and tekochip, BeLuvv team is considering about the child feedback button for guardian 2nd generation, which allows lost children to send SOS signal to their carer.

The more I think about it, tekochip, the more important I think this technology is. I recall getting separated from my family at a carnival as a nine-year-old. I walked the two miles back to my house. I think situations like those are more terrifying for the parents than for the kids who get lost.

The idea with swimming pool safety is layers of protection - you want to have multiple safe guards. While this may sound extreme - drownings don't offer second chances. I also had a sensor on my patio door so that I would hear an alarm beep when it was opened - my first layer of defense in that I knew the entrance to the backyard was accessible. I also had a wrought iron fence built around the pool with a child-safe lock. My toddler son is now a teenager and swims very well. We all enjoy the pool, but having these safety precautions for the little ones gives irreplaceable peace of mind. Nothing substitutes for direct parental supervision but even the most diligent parenst are not perfect. Having layers provides safety in those rare moments when they are most needed.

Come to think of it, there should be a location sensor in their cars as well. How many times do we see an alert reagrding the elderly and the description of their car in those electronic highway signs...

I don't know, Elizabeth - if you were watching this little rascal you would probably opt for the leash...I am telling you - he was that quick. Knowing him, he would have found a way to lose any wearable monitoring device. When he sees us at church he runs up to us with a big smile and a hug but I am thinking fourth grade sounds much better next year...I'm not as young as I used to be!

Nancy, that is also another really interesting application of technology and how it can protect children. I just was looking over everyone's comments and from what I'm hearing, it seems like a consensus among parents who have commented that something like this is really useful, although there could also be other variations of similar technology that also could be effective in helping parents look after their kids.

Haha, Nancy--it sounds like a leash would've been a good option for that little rascal. ;) But your story definitely illustrates the point of why using technology like this is a good idea. We have it at our disposal and it's much more practical and comfortable than a leash. Despite people's best efforts to protect their kids, sometimes it's not always enough.

Thank you for your comment, BeLuvv. It's good to have the perspective of the company in terms of designing the device. Comfort is a big factor, I can imagine, and an important one with picky children. This gives people a good option for their child's safety.

30 minutes at Brookfield Zoo! I would have been insane, my boy was lost about 20 seconds.

On topic, and another Chicago story. I got lost at Adventure Land when I was a kid. The place was closing and they had these terrifying guard dogs tugging at the leash, barking, and drooling like they hadn't had a child to eat in almost six hours. They kept annocing over the PA that the gates were closing and that they were going to unleash the dogs. I was crying so hard when I found the front gate that I almsot didn't see the snarling dogs bounding against the fence.

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